Trust
by patientalien
Summary: Obi-Wan ruminates during the "Deception" arc.


**title** Trust  
**author** **patientalien**  
**rating** T  
**summary** Obi-Wan ruminates during the "Deception" arc of TCW. Written for a prompt from **citizenjess** on tumblr.

* * *

He is not entirely sure which Jedi will be sent to arrest Rako Hardeen at first, but then Windu informs him via their encrypted comm-link that it will be Anakin and Obi-Wan feels his stomach clench. He knew this could have been a possibility. After all, it is Anakin's reactions that have sold the entire ruse. Having Anakin be the one to apprehend Obi-Wan Kenobi's killer is simply the icing on the cake; no one will doubt the veracity of 'Hardeen's' claims if it is Kenobi's own former apprentice who brings him in.

Still, this is a dangerous game they are playing. He sensed Anakin's distress, even through the vital suppressor. Knew, too, the devestation felt by his dearest friend. And Anakin is nothing if not predictable in his unpredictability. He knows that this could end up being the end of the whole ploy; Anakin could very well kill him where he stands before he can even get close to Moralo Eval.

Obi-Wan breathes out, heavily, the harsh feel and sound of Rako Hardeen still disconcerting. "Well," he says to the empty room, "may as well get into character." He heads out to the bar.

—-

If he is honest with himself, he would admit that the reason he'd really had so much to drink was not so he would make a convincing drunk, but because being thrown around the room by an enraged Anakin Skywalker kriffing hurt and he'd wanted to dull the pain as much as possible. Besides, if he was about to be killed by his best friend, he wasn't sure he wanted to be lucid for it. He's not so drunk, though, that he gives up his cover, and he's plenty sober enough to see the pain in Anakin's eyes, hear the tense edge to his voice. He can't bring himself to look Anakin in the eye so he rolls his own around in their sockets, trying to avoid acknowledging how much Anakin is shaking.

It is not until he has been handed over to the prison guards - Anakin promising to come 'straighten him out' if needed - that he allows himself to recognize that likely the only reason he is still alive is the fact Anakin had Ahsoka with him.

—-

He knows that it is Anakin simply by the way the other ship is bobbing and weaving about his; no other pilot in the galaxy is so bantha-headed as to try half of those maneuvers. His suspicions are confirmed when Anakin lands on the nose of Obi-Wan's ship, lightsaber out and singing. He can't make out Anakin's face, but he recognizes his friend nonetheless.

When the ships finally crash - Ahsoka does not have the finesse in the pilot's seat that her Master does - Obi-Wan is terrified that Anakin has been killed by the impact, even moreso than he is of the idea of facing Anakin in combat. Because he knows now this is where the day is heading - if Anakin is still alive, and isn't badly injured, that is.

He risks a brief fling of the Force in the general direction Anakin's body sailed. Still alive, he can tell, and Anakin's Force-presence is coming in his direction. Even with the advance preparation, Obi-wan is ill-prepared for the nearly ninety kilograms of unbridled fury that slams into him from the side.

It hasn't been more than a few days since Obi-Wan's 'death', but Anakin looks like he hasn't slept for any of them. His face is gaunt and shadowed, and his entire body is trembling; he looks like a wild, feral creature, and it is then Obi-Wan realizes that even if he survives this and can go back to being Obi-Wan Kenobi, what he has done to Anakin is unforgivable. He allows Anakin to get a few good shots in, in penance, but then it becomes clear that Anakin has no intention of letting him off the moon alive. He knows what would happen were Anakin to kill him - not to the plan, to the Chancellor, to the Jedi, but to ANAKIN - so he does the only thing he really can do. Before Anakin succumbs to the choke hold - and to sleep he obviously desperately needs, Obi-Wan allows himself to plant the seed of doubt in Anakin's mind. The Council will have to tell him the truth now.

He wishes "better late than never" were a valid platitude in this case, but it is not.

—-

The next time he sees Anakin is on Naboo, and his friend is being electrocuted by the bounty hunter Derrown. He only had the one shot in his sniper rifle, so he is left to shout a warning to Windu through the comm and watch helplessly as Anakin falls to the ground, twitching.

Despite the setback, they are able to rescue the Chancellor and he is able to be face to face with Anakin as himself (though still with Rako Hardeen's face) for the first time since the whole thing began. Anakin is, as expected, unhappy, even moreso when Obi-Wan admits his part in the very personal deception. Anakin stalks away while Obi-Wan mulls over his friend's angry words.

—-

He realizes, too late, that Anakin is right. By the time he catches up with the younger man, Anakin is engaged in lightsaber dual with Count Dooku. Though Anakin seems better-rested than the last time Obi-Wan saw him fight, he is still off-balance, his emotions roiling too close to the surface, the way Obi-Wan is terrified will be Anakin's downfall one day.

Not today, though, he vows, glad to have grabbed his own lightsaber from Windu after the Chancellor's rescue. Anakin's focus is shot, and Dooku manages to catch him with a swath of Force-lightning, a hundred times more painful and damaging than anything Derrown could have done. Anakin barely allows himself a moment to recover before sprinting after Dooku's retreating form, Obi-Wan keeping pace not a hairs'-breadth behind. They will do this together, because they are a Team.

And the look Anakin gives him when it is all over, when the Chancellor is safe and Dooku has escaped once again, tells Obi-Wan that, despite being fractured, despite being a little broken, the Team is still intact.

It does not save him from a tantrum later, but for the time being, it is enough. 


End file.
